As the evidence seems to point toward a conclusion that Sahel Kazemi bought a gun and, within a couple of days, used it on former Titans and Ravens quarterback Steve McNair, there are two questions that keep nagging at us.
The first is whether the 20-year-old Kazemi was capable of putting four bullets into McNabb McNair with her brand-new gun, and then killing herself with a shot to the side of the head. Though the most logical conclusion at this point is that she was, and that she did, there’s something about it that doesn’t make sense -- apart from the obviously nonsensical nature of the tragedy.
The other question is why did she buy a gun within “hours” after being arrested on Thursday evening for DUI?
Unless she had pre-existing plans to buy a gun that weren’t postponed by the fact that she had been arrested for DUI, it’s reasonable to conclude that something happening in connection with or following the arrest prompted her to make the transaction.
The strongest possibility is that she was upset that McNair, who was in the Escalade they jointly owned at the time of the arrest, left her alone to deal with the charges. If reports are true that McNair’s wife didn’t know he was dating Kazemi, McNair might have explained his swift departure by telling her, “Look, my wife doesn’t know about any of this. So I’m out of here.”
But McNair isn’t the only person with whom Kazemi interacted after the lights on the cruiser started spinning.
As explained by the Tennessean, the same officer who arrested Kazemi busted McNair six years ago for DUI.
The charges from 2003 were dismissed. The officer, Shawn Taylor, was disciplined for repeatedly asking McNair to submit to breath testing after McNair had refused to do so.
Per the Tennessean, Taylor later was found to be in violation of department rules for taking home videotapes of arrests he had made, including the McNair DUI bust.
So we’d love to know everything that Taylor said to Kazemi after McNair left the scene.
In raising that question, we’re not suggesting that Taylor intentionally tried to incite Kazemi to commit violence against McNair. But perhaps Taylor’s efforts to console a potentiallly distraught Kazemi inadvertently stirred her emotions.
Or maybe Taylor simply held a grudge against McNair based on the events of 2003 -- and maybe Taylor said things aimed merely at driving a wedge between McNair and the young woman who wasn’t McNair’s wife, without realizing what his words might potentially trigger.
Again, we don’t know what if anything Taylor said to Kazemi. But we think that someone within the police department should find out.
If Kazemi’s ex-boyfriend, who isn’t a suspect, was interviewed for several hours in order to obtain information about Kazemi and her relationship with McNair, Taylor should be interviewed in order to ascertain everything he saw and heard -- and said -- with respect to a girl who not long after dealing with a DUI arrest and contacting an attorney and posting bond would choose to purchase a handgun that within two days would be used to kill McNair.
UPDATE: There’s another potential angle to this. Kazemi reportedly was with her ex-boyfriend, Keith Norfleet, in the hours after the Thursday arrest. So while Norfleet reportedly isn’t a suspect, it’s possible (key word: possible) that Norfleet said or did something to instigate the purchase of the gun.